Editor’s Note: Mark Nehrenz is studying in South Africa this semester.

Ready to explode yet?

From what I gather here on the other side of the world, these last few days before the election are going to be pretty intense.

I am sure that Wolf Blitzer, Anderson Cooper and the like are so busy filling your TVs with stories about Joe the Plumber’s life saga and Sarah Palin’s appearance on Saturday Night Live that you just want to scream, “Shut up, cover something real, and, while you’re at it, why not buy some more LCD screens and get a real name, Wolf!”

To some degree, I am a bit disappointed that I have missed out on the pure insanity of this years election process, but it has been eye-opening to see it from a completely different perspective.

Since late May, I have only been in the United States for a grand total of three weeks. The rest of the time, I have been on the soil of seven different countries in Africa.

The U.S. election comes up all the time when I meet people, but discussions are not usually about the “election” per say.

The story on this continent is — big surprise here — Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill.

If you think Obama-mania is huge on campuses in America, multiply it times some large “illion” number, feed it some spinach and inject it with steroid-laced Red Bull, and you might come close to the Obama-excitement I have experienced in Africa.

I was in Kenya when Obama beat Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., for the Democratic nomination in early June. (In case you’ve been living in a bat cave because Heath Ledger’s Joker scared the crap out of you, Obama’s father was from Kenya).

Not only was I in Kenya, but in the Nyanaza province, home of the Luo tribe Obama’s father belonged to.

One day in Siaya, the current home of Obama’s grandmother, we drove past Senator Barack Obama High School.

The day after he beat Hillary, Obama was on the front page of both national newspapers. One of the papers had something like 17 pages of stories dedicated solely to him and his victory, family, history, favorite music, etc.

In South Africa, the editor of the Mail and Guardian, one of the country’s leading newspapers, talked about the corrupt politics in her country. She told me Americans are incredibly lucky to have such an exciting candidate.

The fact that Obama has immediate family roots in Africa and has the U.S. presidency at his fingertips is incredibly exciting and inspiring to people in Africa.

What he represents to them is impossible to put into words, but often, hopes are misplaced.

In Kenya, I interviewed a 12-year-old named Don. He brought it up, and I asked what Obama meant to him. He said he just knew that if this “Kenyan citizen” was elected, it would become much more affordable for him to visit America.

Don was an incredibly bright and articulate kid, and I had to explain to him that things don’t quite work like that.

The view held by Don was quite prominent in Kenya, which is understandable as the nation has such a pride in their “American Son,” but not everyone thought this blissfully.

A journalism student in Nairobi angrily pointed this out to a group of students,

“Why do people here call him a Kenyan?” he asked. “He has never lived here like us; he is not a Kenyan.”

I realize that during these trying economic times in America, if Obama is elected it will have virtually nothing to do with how he would treat Africa, but for many people here, that is all that matters.

Right after I arrived in South Africa, a newspaper was having a forum called “What Africa means to Obama and What Obama means to Africa.”

So, what, if anything, would an Obama presidency really mean for Africa? It could mean a lot of things, and the incredibly surprising endorsement by former Secretary of State Colin Powell is quite significant in this regard. Powell has always focused significantly on Africa, and this influence could also lead Obama in that direction.

I have been to some historic places on the continent, like the Kibera slum in Kenya, apartheid monuments Soweto, South Africa. I have also seen pictures of Obama visiting these places, and the same cannot be said of most U.S. politicians.

Of all my friends in the U.S. supporting Obama, I know of none who have ever met him, yet here in my residence in South Africa, there is a student a few houses down who had a long meeting and discussion with Obama in 2006.

Obama has a connection with this continent that no other U.S. politician can boast of, and he could use it to do incredible things, or he could completely neglect it.

I have fallen in love with this broken but beautiful continent, and I sincerely hope that as president, Obama would use his unique position to encourage U.S. businesses to invest in Africa and to support sustainable development projects here.

Whether or not Obama would change any direct U.S. policies towards Africa is impossible to tell now. Politics is politics. But if elected, Obama must do at least one thing in regards to Africa. He must use his motivational power to shift some focus to Africa.

I want more people to have experience like I have had here, to meet people like I have met, and to develop life-long relationships and partnerships that can in turn help develop this beautiful place.

Obama is about change, right?

Perception drives our actions, and its about time perception of Africa changed. Obama could help with that.

Mark Nehrenz is a journalism senior. His column appears every other Friday.